Home Alone is one of those Christmas movies that serve as a welcomed reprieve from the annoying classics that your old and decrepit relatives make you watch during the holidays (if I have to watch Ralphie shoot his eye out one more time I’ll take his rifle and blow my own brains out), just like Die Hard and Gremlins. But unlike the former, Home Alone has spawned a slew of fan-theories – some of which include the devil playing a part in getting Kate McCallister home to Chicago, while others scrounge up evidence to conclude that Kevin’s dad is in the mob.

And as the years pass even more theories pop up, this time from Redditor “bobcobble.” Using his 20/20 vision and fancy-pants “pause” feature on his ’98 VHS player, bobcobble discovered a tiny detail that no one in the past 25 years has noticed:

That’s right – Kevin’s dad threw out Kevin’s ticket before they even got to the airport, meaning that Kevin had zero chance of making it to Paris regardless of whether or not he got left behind at the house.

But was it intentional or an accident? Did Peter McCallister pitch the ticket because of an oversight, or was it part of a mastermind plot to murder Kevin? Reddit speculates:

He totally knew what he was doing. ~ Ipodman94

And he hired those two robbers to rob his house without telling them Kevin would be there, with the plan being that they would panic and kill Kevin (which seems to be what they tried to do by the end). ~ CollectableRat

Years later there’s a rash of break-ins in adult Kevin’s neighborhood. Calling on experience he sets a couple of traps, only this time he kills the attempting home invader. Kevin feels a rush like never before and quickly justifies the death as “justice against the wicked” and begins his new secret life as… Jigsaw. ~ JD-King

Unlikely, but considering what Kevin looks like now…

…I can see the Jigsaw in him.

Others believe it’s a ploy to keep their vacation from being ruined:

Peter didn’t want Frank to spoil the vacation so when he found the perfect opportunity to throw out Kevin’s ticket, he took it right here. ~ boodleoodle

How does throwing out Kevin’s ticket prevent Frank from spoiling the vacation? ~ Miley_Dahmer

I’m guessing it’s because Kevin is the one member of the family that Frank didn’t get along with. ~ AnythingForAPint

Then why not ruin Frank’s ticket instead of his son’s? ~ Miley_Dahmer

Frank is an adult who paid is responsible for his own ticket. He would be much more likely to notice it’s missing and either sort a replacement or catch a later flight. ~ greatkingrat

Regardless of whether or not you take stock in these theories, the audience never finds out what Peter McCallister does for a living, and the trashed ticket is never brought up – the ticket is mostly irrelevant anyway, as the main problem is that Kevin never made it to the airport in the first place. So why even show us the trashed ticket unless it points to something more sinister?

Someone go watch Home Alone and come up with another theory. If you need me, I’ll be watching The Krampus until my eyes bleed.